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[McLaren Fan]

From autosport.com:

By Steven English and Craig Scarborough Wednesday, September 17th 2008, 17:14 GMT

Christian KlienBMW Sauber topped their second day of testing at Jerez this week, with eight teams present today rather than the three that ran yesterday.

Christian Klien was aboard the BMW today and set a best time of 1:19.537, just over three tenths quicker than Sebastian Vettel's best time in his first test for Red Bull Racing.

Klien covered nearly 400 kilometres, focusing mainly on aerodynamic upgrades for the remainder of the this season.

"A whole day's testing without any problems gave me the opportunity to provide the engineers with a lot of feedback on new components," said Klien.

"The new surface on parts of the track provides better grip and has smoothed out the bumps that were there before."

Robert Kubica was scheduled to take over for BMW tomorrow, but has been sidelined by an infected tooth, so Nick Heidfeld will complete the next two days of running for the team.

Vettel lost some time during the afternoon with a gearbox problem, but still finished the day in second place. He will continue testing with Red Bull tomorrow, before returning to Scuderia Toro Rosso for the final day of the test on Friday.

Red Bull's reserve driver Sebastien Buemi moved in the opposite direction to Vettel to test for Toro Rosso today as the team evaluate him in what the team called an audition for a race drive for 2009.

He finished the day third overall, four tenths off the pace of Vettel.

McLaren tested their KERS system for the first time today with Gary Paffett behind the wheel. He ran a simple check of the system, and also sampled some aero developments aimed at the final four races of the season, and finished the day fourth on the time sheet.

Pedro de la Rosa will take over testing duties for McLaren tomorrow.

Toyota, Renault, Honda, and Williams were also out on track today, with Williams and Kazuki Nakajima testing their 2009-spec rear end.

They ran an FW30 fitted with a rear wing and diffuser sized to the new dimensions, however the rest of the aero was to the current rules.

The 2009 rules demand the rear wing be just 800mm wide, but it is allowed to be deeper and placed higher up. While the new diffuser is lower, shorter, and moved further back.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Christian Klien BMW Sauber 1:19.537 84
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:19.878 60
3. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.209 88
4. Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.602 52
5. Kamui Kobayashi Toyota 1:20.769 94
6. Lucas di Grassi Renault 1:20.853 90
7. Alexander Wurz Honda 1:21.123 71
8. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1:23.171 61

[Dutchcruijff]

2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:19.878 60

Ahh refreshing to see that sight.

[McLaren Fan]

From F1 Live:

After two bright and sunny days, today's group testing at the Jerez circuit was strongly hindered by the appearance of rainshowers in the afternoon. The amount of time spent on the track was affected as a result, and the eight teams present at the Spanish site therefore adjusted their programmes to fit the situation.

With rain a real possibility at the upcoming races, it was a good opportunity to try out some relevant set-ups, but the newly-resurfaced venue made for slippery conditions. Before the clouds opened however, lap times were improving in comparison to yesterday's timesheets.

Sebastien Vettel, getting acquainted with the Renault-powered Red Bull RB4 once again, set the day's fastest lap of the track at 1:18.001, shaving off 1.5 seconds from Wednesday's best recorded by Christian Klien and BMW Sauber.

Nick Heidfeld took over from Klien at the wheel of the F1.08 and was a close runner-up to fellow german Vettel, while Renault's Lucas di Grassi was third-quickest nearly a second off today's top result.

Pedro de la Rosa was on hand aboard the McLaren Mercedes MP4-23, achieving the fourth-best lap ahead of Honda's Alexander Wurz, who accumulated the most mileage of all the drivers present.

Takuma Sato was in the Toro Rosso garage yesterday, and today he was at the controls of the STR3 for the first time as he auditioned in front of team bosses for a seat with the team next year. The former Honda and Super Aguri driver established the sixth-best time.

Toyota's Kamui Kobayashi reached seventh on today's timesheets, while Kazuki Nakajima and the Williams FW30 were once again at the bottom of the list by a noticeable margin as the team worked on different configurations and a 2009-spec rear wing.

Bridgestone also tested purple-coloured tyre markings.

Tomorrow will be the final day of in-season testing before the teams head out for the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix.

Jerez - 18/09/08:
1. S. Vettel – Red Bull Racing RB4 - 1:18.001 – 37 laps
2. N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.08 - 1:18.167 (+ 0.166) – 70 laps
3. L. di Grassi - Renault R28 - 1:18.999 (+ 0.998) – 36 laps
4. P. de la Rosa - McLaren MP4-23 - 1:19.281 (+ 1.280) – 39 laps
5. A. Wurz - Honda RA108 - 1:19.499 (+ 1.498) - 79 laps
6. T. Sato - Toro Rosso STR3 - 1:19.574 (+ 1.573) - 49 laps
7. K. Kobayashi - Toyota TF108 - 1:19.863 (+ 1.862) - 47 laps
8. K. Nakajima - Williams FW30 - 1:21.892 (+ 3.891) – 60 laps

Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International

[McLaren Fan]

From autosport.com:

De la Rosa tops final day of testing

By Pablo Elizalde Friday, September 19th 2008, 15:31 GMT

Formula One teams completed their final test of the 2008 season at the Jerez circuit, where Pedro de la Rosa finished on top of the times for McLaren.

After yesterday's rain-interrupted session, the eight teams present at the Spanish track were able to continue with their scheduled programmes thanks to a sunny day, with air temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius.

De la Rosa, working on aero development and a KERS evaluation programme, was the only man who managed to lap in less than 79 seconds, finishing with a best time of 1:18.992 after 90 laps.

The Spaniard was followed by BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Renault's test driver Lucas di Grassi, who had a busy day as the French team tried to make up for the time lost yesterday.

"It was another hot day, but it was much better than yesterday and we were able to do lots of laps," said di Grassi. "I felt even more comfortable with the car and we have definitely improved it a lot during the week.

"We worked on lots of different things, including some set- up work and new tyre runs in the morning, and in the afternoon we evaluated some parts to be used in the last few races."

Sebastian Vettel returned to his Toro Rosso team after two days testing with Red Bull Racing. The Italian Grand Prix winner finished as fourth fastest after 93 laps.

The Red Bull car was driven today by Sebastien Buemi, who completed the top five ahead of Toyota's Timo Glock, who also had a busy day of work.

"That was a hectic day of testing because I carried out a lot of work for the different kinds of race tracks we have coming up," said Glock. "We got through a lot of laps, finishing our programme without issues.

"It's good that we had consistent weather today but it was still a bit tricky because yesterday's rain on this new surface meant that there was only one line and the rest was really dirty. Nevertheless we made useful progress and gathered information that will help us in the final part of the season."

Honda's test driver Alex Wurz finished seventh, ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Williams.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.992 90
2. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:19.250 98
3. di Grassi Renault (B) 1:19.280 102
4. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:19.470 93
5. Buemi Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.005 84
6. Glock Toyota (B) 1:20.482 111
7. Wurz Honda (B) 1:22.658 51
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:22.806 102

[al4x]

ggood by di grassi for renault in the last practice